The Supreme Court on Friday deferred its hearing on a plea by Rohingya immigrants against the government’s proposed move to deport their 40,000-strong refugee community back to their native land of Myanmar, where discrimination and possibly summary execution await them.
The Rohingya community, which fled to India after violence in the state of Rakhine in Myanmar, have settled down in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.
The Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the case would be posted for final disposal in January.
The petitions have said the Centre’s move to deport them violates the constitutional guarantee that the Indian State should “protect the life and liberty of every human being, whether citizen or not.”
NHRC notice
The National Human Rights Commission had even issued notice to the government on the proposed deportment.
Panic had struck the refugee community following media reports of a statement by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju in Parliament in early August that the Central government had directed States to identify and deport illegal immigrants, including Rohingya.
The petition filed in the Supreme Court submits that the 40,000-odd Rohingya in the country were registered and recognised by the UNHCR in 2016 and granted refugee identity cards. Their deportment would violate India’s commitment to international conventions.
“The proposed deportation is contrary to the constitutional protections of Article 14 (equality), Article 21 (right to life) and Article 51(c) (respect for international law and treaty obligations) of the Constitution...,” the petition contended.
The UNHRC Report of 2016 on the human rights violations and abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar has noted successive patterns of threats to right to life, liberty and security of the Rohingya from state security forces and other officials in Mynamar. Violations include summary executions, enforced disappearance, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment, forced labour, arbitrary arrest and detention of hundreds of Rohingya, including women and children.
